new shower

I am replacing a tub and building a walk-in shower in a pier-and-beam house. Once the old tub is removed, I plan on tiling the entire area, including the floor, for the new shower. What is the best way to prepare the floor to ensure no leakage and proper draining?

Lots of questions need to be answered. If you go over to www.johnbridge.com they've got both structural engineer and tile experts that can help you with this. You need to do some detective work first, though, they will need to know how far apart the piers are, what the beams sizes are, how thick the subfloor is and what it is made of and probably some other things! The part you make the shower on and the part you tile may need different prep. To tile, you can't do it over dimensional lumber, it needs to have something to decouple the seasonal movement of the boards from the tile. You can do this with a mud bed, or plywood and cement backer unit (cbu) or a decoupling membrane. Anyway, go over there and you'll get some good answers. It will probably take a lot longer to get the info here - they specialize only on tiling, so it will go faster.

There are so many ways to do this. If you need a hand planning your build please send me an email. The best way to build your shower is to start with your tile and lighting layout first.

Starting here will help you decide how you might tackle the decision of what system to use for the build. I often like to pick the tile as well since you would build a shower differently for granite slabs or glass tile. Even certain tiles require special setting material and often certain types of stone.

Start there and then find out what your local pool of tradesmen prefer.